Volunteer SkillsUSA winners honored by Hawkins BOE

ROGERSVILLE — The Hawkins County Board of Education honored several students Thursday including the Volunteer High School criminal justice program, which recently scored multiple state championships and top threes in the SkillsUSA competition last month in Chattanooga.

Volunteer’s Criminal Justice SkillsUSA Chapter earned a total of 14 medals, including eight gold, at the state competition held March 19-21.

Zach Mayo, Mary Morrison, Alexis Fansler, Ellie Mclain, Sarah Gonce, and Hannah Johnson teamed up to earn a gold medal in Chapter Business (Parliamentary) Procedure. The team will participate at the national competition in Louisville in June.

Zach Manis with Savannah Cearley also earned a gold medal as assistants in Action Skills and will advance to the Louisville event as well.

Emily Christian was elected president of the SkillsUSA team for Tennessee for the 2018-19 school year.

Team advisor Kevin Hilton received the SkillsUSA Paul Adler Service Award.

Jacob Smallwood was recognized for entering the Criminal Justice competition. Hilton said Smallwood “did very well.”

In related news, VHS cosmetology student Delana Simmons earned fourth place at SkillsUSA in the Regional Nail Care contest, which qualified her for state competition. Her entry consisted of nail art, acrylic nails, gel nails and an interview. The school is still awaiting her scores to see where she placed at the state level. Her instructor is Tammy Turner.

SCOPE (Student Congress on Policies and Education)

On March 6, the Tennessee School Boards Association hosted the 2018 SCOPE Conference, which was attended by Volunteer students Lauren Bruner, Colton Simmons and Skylar Dykes. They made oral presentations to students from across the state on current topics in education. Their presentation on gun violence in schools earned first place in their categories for the conference.

Powell Valley Electric Co-op essay contest

Clinch School junior Taylor Kinsler who earned a second place in the Powell Valley Electric Co-op essay/short story contest with her essay on how Powell Valley saved the life of a farm’s newborn calf.

Clinch junior Katie Nichols placed third in the same essay contest with her story based on the “Grey’s Anatomy” TV show, in which the characters experienced a blackout, and a man from the Powell-Valley Electric Co-op explains to them the importance of electricity.

Both earned an all-expense-paid trip to explore Washington, D.C.

Bulls Gap BETA Club “distinction three-peat”

The Bulls Gap School BETA Club earned its third consecutive recognition as a National School of Distinction. The National BETA Cub is the nation’s largest nonprofit independent educational youth organization. It recognizes and promotes high academic achievement, rewarding and nurturing worthy character, improving student leadership skills and encouraging service to others.

Along those lines BGS BETA took the opportunity Thursday to present BOE Vice Chair Debbie Shedden, who is also on the Imagination Library board of directors, with a check for $289.40 it raised for the Imagination Library.

Cherokee football and basketball stars

Cherokee senior football player Carter Reynolds was named Region 1 5A District Defensive Player of the Year. He had 113 tackles, 14.5 tackles for loss and five sacks.

Cherokee junior Ryan Bledsoe was selected the District 1 3A player of the year in basketball, averaging 18 points per game. He is the 10th player in Cherokee history to reach 1,000 points and still has a year to go.

Cherokee FCCLA earns state championship

An FCCLA (Family Career & Community Leaders of America) team comprised of three Cherokee freshmen earned first place in the category of Illustrated Talk on the topic of child abuse. The team’s advisor is Teresa Bishop.